Enhanced chiroptic properties of nanocomposites of achiral plasmonic nanoparticles decorated with chiral dye-loaded micelles

Abstract The development of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL)-active materials with both large luminescence dissymmetry factor (g lum ) and high emission efficiency continues to be a major challenge. Here, we present an approach to improve the overall CPL performance by integrating triplet-triplet annihilation-based photon upconversion (TTA-UC) with localized surface plasmon resonance. Dye-loaded chiral micelles possessing TTA-UC ability are designed and attached on the surface of achiral gold nanorods (AuNRs). The longitudinal and transversal resonance peaks of AuNRs overlap with the absorption and emission of dye-loaded chiral micelles, respectively. Typically, 43-fold amplification of g lum value accompanied by 3-fold enhancement of upconversion are obtained simultaneously when Au@Ag nanorods are employed in the composites. More importantly, transient absorption spectra reveal a fast accumulation of spin-polarized triplet excitons in the composites. Therefore, the enhancement of chirality-induced spin polarization should be in charge of the amplification of g lum value. Our design strategy suggests that combining plasmonic nanomaterials with chiral organic materials could aid in the development of chiroptical nanomaterials.